Ongoing Life

I remember someone telling me this right after Aves was born. I didn't think this was possible but it is. We've had a couple great weekends in a row. This past weekend we spoiled the little man immensely. We bought a giant play kitchen for him. The thing showed up at our house in two big boxes on Saturday.  We waited until he went to bed to unpack it and get it together.  I'm not sure who was more excited about it: me or him.

When he woke up on Sunday, Michelle did the diaper changing while I got the camera. When he walked out to the living room his only response was "Ooh, ooh, ooh!" as he pointed at it. He immediately dug into playing. He could move things form the drawer to the cabinet and back again all day long.

The other thing we got him was a small leather chair. He crawls up on it, sits down, then climbs down. I'm not sure if he realizes it's a chair rather than a climbing toy.

I really don't care as long as he is giggling.

It seems that in times of stress I always come to needing an anchor to maintain my sanity. It seems that the journal has served this purpose well. I bet if you go back and look at the history of entries you will find many dead spots in the timeline. (mind you, I have not gone back to look) I would suspect that the posts start up during a hectic/stressful time. I think I just need an outlet for this stress. It also seems that I strive to find ways to relax. During these times I also find myself watching more TV, playing more video games, etc. It feels as if I get more enjoyment out of these during stressful times.
 
I'm not sure if it is because I'm trying to avoid the stress or release it through these activities. I think the activities release teh stress overall. The best thing to cut through all the stress is having Aves come running over to me and give me a hug. Unfortunately, this is not always possible when I have class until late at night. But this cuts both ways, it is so much harder when all he wants is his mom and his response to me is " Go away, Daddy." Most time when this happens I can easily write it off as the boy being a toddler but it sucks even more wehn all I want is his hugs.

Why is it that I'm running into a hell of a time with jobs. It seems that people do not view the fact that I'm getting my MBA as a positive. It seems I'm stuck in a very odd place. With the usual political crap that goes on at a large corporation, I feel that I'm getting lost in the shuffle. I need to find a bridge job between the one I am in now and the post MBA I'd like to have. The problem is that each bridge job I've talked to people about they bring up the fact that I probably wouldn't want to be in the position after I complete my MBA. I try to explain to the people that I'm looking for a challenge and improve my skills, but all they hear is "MBA, he is going to leave after he's done". I'm growing tired of the lack of clarity that management provides. The do not provide any guidance on anything. No one will tell me where I stand on the totem pole. But all the feedback I get is "You are doing a good job, keep doing what you are doing." The nly benefit I'm seeing is that I'm one of the first asked to take on more of the same old boring work. That's not good when I hate the work they ask me to take on.

This evening was a banner evening for horrible customer service.

Last weekend my father-in-law and I installed a new ceiling fan in a bedroom. We ran into a few issues but nothing major until we went to screw in the lightbulbs. One of the sockets was broken so we were unable to screw in the lightbulb. I read through the warranty document and it said that the manufacture would send out replacement parts at no cost if there was something wrong. I called the 800 number and explained my situation to the woman on the other end of the phone. Her response was "We don't send out new sockets or electrical parts. Go back to Menard's and exchange it." I asked her why her about the part of the warranty that said they would send out new parts. "We do that if it's not an electric part. If it's any wiring you have to take it back." I was skeptical that Menard's would be able to help. When we arrived at Menard's, I thought my customer service luck turned around. I walked up to the service desk and the woman told me to go over to the fans and the salesman would be able to help me. Once we located the fan model we had at home, he opened up the box and dug out the light fixture. While he was digging through the box, he apologized for the trouble we had.  Once we got all the pieces he apologized again and told us to have a good night. I was amazed by how easy this was.  Unfortunately the night of custmer service was downhill from there.

Our next stop was at the new Target store in Maple Grove. We went there just to check out the new store. It had just opened on Tuesday so it was amazing to see how neat and uncluttered the store seemed.  We did end up getting a sweater for Mr. A and some other random items. We only has a couple items so we hit up the express lane. The cashier looked at me and said, "I can't help you." I gave her a quizzical and she just repeated "I can't help you." It wasn't like she was uncapable, she was in the middle of finishing up a transaction.  I said "Okay?" and headed further down the row of lanes to find someone who was able to help.

The next stop was Gamestop. I wanted to take advantage of a deal they were running for trading in games for Guitar Hero III. This should have been a 5 minute deal, but took around 30 minutes for clerk to finish the transaction.  She asked me my phone number no less than 4 times during the ordeal. Finally she asked me to write down my number so I wouldn't have to ask me every time she needed it. During the first 10 minutes, she was entering my info in their new computer system. She and another worker spent a good portion of that 10 minutes discussing the horrible new system and how much they hate it.  The last 20 minutes was the clerk trying to figure out why some bonus credit wasn't being allowed. She kept repeating that if she can't get it to work that she would have to do it manually. In the end, she called another store and found out that she couldn't use all of the bonus credits in one transaction. She was apologetic, but still frustrating that it took that long for a 5 minute transaction. Hopefully I'll be able to get in and out when I pick it up.

Since we had done a bunch of running, it was getting late and we still needed dinner. BW's carry-out was what we decided on. I called them up and tried to place a simple order of 8 boneless wings and their dynamic trio. The 8 boneless wings was not an issue, but the trio was hard. When I ordered the trio I heard dead silence. She placed me on hold for a minute. When she got back on the line her response was "All we can find is the Naked Tender so do you want that?"  I had given up at that point and just ordered the tenders with one sauce.

So that was my evening of bad service. After the first two stops I was annoyed with the lack of service, but by the time I had finished with BW's it was just comical.

The past week has been a series of ups ad downs. To start the week off our dryer went out. I did some research online to see what the possible causes were. All the solutions seemed to be an easy fix. However there was not a easy was to diagnos the problem with out trying each solution. I ended up going out to Sears to get a new one. The next morning I went down to our basement and found the computer continually rebooting. Michelle and I had a difference opinion on the necessity of this computer. This is the computer that we record TV with so to me it's a necessity. Luckily, on Sunday my brother told me about a coupon from Dell that made the price more bearable. Later that night, Michelle went to feed the pigs and I heard Michelle call my name. I knew immediately that it was good news. It wasn't. Callie, my guinea pig, was dead. So I got to deal with that Sunday night.

Last week I had interviewed for a job and had not heard anything back. This morning my manager pulled me aside because she had some news for me. She told me that I had been promoted in my current role. This was good news but I was still waiting to hear back about the interview. I got my answer later in the day. Unfortunately, it was a no.

In the end, I have a new washer being delivered tomorrow, a new computer by the end of the month, and a little extra coin in my pocket.